WOLFPACK WRESTLING - Angell 7th, Duellman 9th to lead Wolfpack at Northern Badger

WOLFPACK WRESTLING

Cornell-Gilman-Lake Holcombe wrestlers Taydyn Angell and Troy Duellman made lengthy runs into their brackets last week at the two-day Northern Badger Invitational hosted by River Falls.

Angell, a freshman, ended the Dec. 2829 event with a pin in the seventh-place match at 215 pounds over Menomonie’s Bryce Shepard. Wrestling at 157 pounds, Duellman, a senior suffered his first losses of the season but went 4-2 overall and won his ninth-place match with a pin in 4:30 over the Luck Co-op’s Brandon Lucas.

The Wolfpack had two more entrants in the tournament. Preston Fredrickson went 1-2 at 144 pounds and Kadyn Jones was 0-2 at 138 pounds.

Angell continued his solid start to the season, improving to 12-3 overall. He went 5-2 in the tournament, rebounding nicely from a second-round loss.

Angell started the tournament as the 12th seed at 215 pounds. He pinned Cameron’s Derek Ewald in 2:41 in his first match but then lost a 21-7 major decision to fifth-seeded Zach Hellendrung of Boyceville (4-2), who reached the semifinals and took fifth in his first competition of the season.

In the consolation bracket, Angell went on a run, pinning Ellsworth’s Breken Young in 49 seconds, Edgar’s Dakota Ellenbecker in 29 seconds and Lakeland’s Leonard Chosa in 1:40 to stay in contention for third place. That hope ended with a loss by pin in 2:15 to Hayward- Northwood’s Bradey Gottwald (164). That loss sent Angell to the seventhplace match, where he finished strong against Shepard, who was the seventh seed to start the tournament. The bracket was won by 19-1 senior Jackson Shramek of Blair-Taylor.

Duellman was seeded third in the 157-pound weight class and reached the quarterfinalswithapinin1:11overNorthwestern’s Wyatt Trzynka and a 48-second pin over Gavyn McFarlane of the Neillsville Co-op. But Freedom’s sixth-seeded Vincent Cook (17-5) emerged as the 7-5 winner of the quarterfinal match by getting a takedown in the sudden-victory overtime period. Cumberland’s Harrison Ruppel (17-8) upset Duellman with a pin in 3:27, ending Duellman’s chances of a third-place finish, but Duellman did the best he could after that, earning a hardfought 4-1 decision over senior Brandon Myher (12-5) of Regis-Altoona and then getting the pin over Lucas to improve to 12-2 for the season.

Griffin Marko of St. Croix Falls (21-1) won the weight class title, beating Clear Lake’s Tyler Sunday (16-10 in the final 3-2.

Frederickson (6-4) got off to a good start, pinning Austin Lund (5-8) of Black River Falls in 3:16 in his first 144-pound bout. But Baldwin-Woodville’s Garrett Guthrie pinned him in 4:33 in the second round and De Pere’s Connor Schenian eliminated him with a 7-2 win in consolation competition.

Jones (5-5) was pinned in 1:57 in his opening match at 138 pounds by Conner Weber of St. Croix Falls and was eliminated with a pin in 1:09 by Somerset’s Blake Fox (19-6), who wound up taking fifth.

As a team, the Wolfpack scored 50 points, which was good for ninth place out of 14 Division 3 teams and 33rd place overall out of 46 teams represented in the tournament. Glenwood City (148.5), Clear Lake (119.5) and Blair-Taylor (88) were the top three Division 3 teams. Cumberland (304), St. Croix Falls (290.5) and Marathon (187.5) were the top Division 2 teams and Menomonie (315.5) was the Division 1 and overall champion. Freedom (285) and St. Croix Central (270) were second and third in Division 1.

The Wolfpack starts a busy January tonight, Thursday, at Bruce for a Lakeland Conference quad that includes Shell Lake and Flambeau. The first duals start at 6 p.m. From there, it’s on to Saturday’s Cadott Invitational, which starts at 10:30 a.m. The Wolfpack will host a Lakeland Conference quad on Jan. 11, where the team will face Unity and the Luck Co-op. Bruce also will be there.